At Millennium's End: New Essays on the Work of Kurt Vonnegut

The prolific novelist, essayist and short story writer Kurt Vonnegut occupies an ambiguous position in the canon of postmodern American literature. Unclassifiable as either lowbrow or highbrow, his works teem with apocalyptic visions and alienated heroes; they are rarely studied in an academic context, which makes this collection something of an oddity. This volume, edited by Boon, who teaches American studies at SUNY-Maritime, mainly covers what will be familiar territory for Vonnegut fans: his obsession with humanity's loss of morality in the machine age and the certainty of technological disaster, and his reluctance to be labeled a science-fiction writer. Half of the essays consider (at more length than might have been thought possible) Vonnegut's relationship to technology and humanism. The rest cover a hodgepodge of topics, ranging from Vonnegut's use of quantum theory to his relationship to Hemingway and his translation into film. The collection suffers somewhat from a case of academic myopia; it seems ironic that Vonnegut, one of the most deft stylists of his time, could inspire an observation like this: ""Either Vonnegut is celebrating the dualistic ascendancy of the body or, far more probably, the indivisibility of the body-soul unity, with `body' and `soul,' like `form' and `content,' being two different ways of talking about the same irreducible thing."" Though Vonnegut may yet become a more central figure of academic study, this collection does little to further the case. For most of his readers it will mainly serve as a reminder that the pleasures of reading Vonnegut himself easily eclipse the pleasures of reading his dry expositors. (Apr.)